JOEL'S OPINION
The word on the street is that the companies have decided to merge to take on AOL. My guess is that they decided to merge to put them in a better position to compete with AOL, AT&T, and whomever else comes along.

I'm mostly surprised that combining two large ISPs only yields three million members. Last time I looked AOL had over 18 million subscribers using just America Online! I wonder how many subscribers AT&T has? Especially since it will also own MediaOne's subscriber base.

This merger will definitely be good for everyone involved. If these guys are joining forces to compete against the bigger boys, it will force AOL to stay competitive, which in turn will result in cheaper connectivity rates all around.